NEW DELHI: Citing “safety concerns”, Delhi High Court has ordered MCD to act against unauthorised vendors in Nehru Place commercial complex area.“It is clear that permitting hawkers to vend in Nehru Place area has raised security concerns for the entire commercial complex itself. It is only a limited number of vendors, who have been allowed to vend in the said area, for whom also directions were passed by the Supreme Court for considering re-location or creation of an earmarked area,” a bench of justices Prathiba M Singh and Madhu Jain noted in an order on Monday.HC dismissed a plea by two vendors seeking to restrain MCD or police from evicting them from vending sites opposite the Mansarovar Building at Nehru Place.It noted that “it is inexplicable as to how the petitioners are being permitted to vend in Nehru Place area” and slapped a cost of Rs 10,000 on them, while ordering MCD to “take immediate action and ensure that no unauthorised vendors are allowed to vend in the Nehru Place area.”The court also pointed out that “judicial notice can be taken that Nehru Place has been declared as a no-vending and no-hawking zone” and referred to a series of orders passed in 2021 by HC after a fire incident took place.
